Beginner's Luck
by BeaBae
Summary: It's a game they don't want to stop playing.


**I in no way own or am claiming to own pokemon. **

000

_To protect the world from devastation_

000

Jessie had been notorious for rejecting every partner sent her way. James was the rich kid looking for adventure. Meowth appeared as the freak pokemon good for little more than translation. Putting them together on a team had been their last chance at Team Rocket.

The first pokemon they stole as a team was an arcanine. Back then, all they had were Jessie's ekans, Jame's koffing, and Meowth, who had spend all his time learning to imitate humans rather than fighting. All things considered, the head of their section had been mildly impressed and allowed them to continue going out as a team together.

This time, they wanted to do something even more impressive. They robbed a Pokemon Center, stealing the pokemon as they rested. The full haul totaled to three bellsprouts, a dewgong, a beedrill and several caterpillar pokemon, as well as all the equipment that wasn't bolted down and all the money in the safe.

All of a sudden, they were the pride of the new recruits.

A veteran member of team rocket passed them in the hall and gave them a nod. Another found them in the lounge of a local base and said "So, what's lucky number three going to be?"

A third veteran put his nose in the air, and he and his partner sneered, "Beginner's luck."

Meowth had picked up some vocabulary back in Hollywood, and he let them know just a few of his favorite words before Jessie picked him up.

"Settle down, Meowth," she said, "we'll show them."

James nodded and smirked, "We will indeed."

000

_To unite all peoples within our nation_

000 

Lucky number three _was_ lucky, in all the ways that none of them expected.

They had been planning to slip into Celadon City's Department store and see what TMs and status boosters they could swipe, but had gotten thrown off course by the blocked road, and their map had been ripped to shreds by an angry Fearow while trying to avoid the blockade through a detour in the forest.

James had tried to contact a fellow team for directions, only to find the batteries of his pokenav dead.

"This is just great," Jessie said, scowling. She smoothed her skirt down before sitting on a fallen log just outside the forest's boundaries. With a huff, she pulled a mirror out of her bag. "Next, my makeup's going to smear."

"You look fine," James said, understanding the feminine impulse to look attractive. He was so glad he was naturally gorgeous, not knowing if he would be able to stand putting on so much foundation every day if he weren't. Well, his hair might need a bit of work. Perhaps he'd dye it…hmm, light blue, when they reached the local safe house. Where was it again? Below the gamecorner?

"Mission three," Jessie snapped her compact shut, slid it into her bag and leaned back. Her back popped. She groaned. "So much for lucky number three…"

"So much for being the newbie protégées…" James sat down beside her.

"So much fa livin' in the lap a' luxury," Meowth grumbled and clawed at the log irritably.

They sat there for a little while, listening to nothing but the sounds of the faraway roadblock, the police's sirens whirring and Meowth's irritability resulting in clawing part of the log to shreds.

"We should get moving," Jessie said suddenly. James looked up and stopped primping his hair.

"What?"

"Sitting around here moping will get us nowhere," Jessie said, standing up and brushing her skirt. "so let's just keep moving and see where it takes us. It can't be worse than where we are now."

"But we don't have a map," James said.

"Na, we don't have a _plan_," Meowth said louder.

"So?" Jessie picked Meowth up and held him around the waist. "If you'd like to sit here in self-misery waiting for the police to clear out so we can go home in shame, that's fine. _I _say we go see if we can find a way to the city through this forest."

"You're crazy!" Meowth said, and wiggled in her grip. Jessie dropped him.

"No, I just have bigger balls than you two," she turned with a flip of her long red hair and marched towards the forest, stopping only when she partway through the edge of the trees to look over her shoulder at them. "Coming?"

"Yes ma'am."

They came.

And they walked.

With Jessie leading the way, all gusto and hips, it seemed a shorter walk than it was through to get through half of the forest. Jessie talked about riches, fame and infamy. Meowth started drooling at some point, and when James asked him why, Meowth shook his head and refused to answer. Jessie waved her hand dismissively, saying Meowth's idea of fortune was probably all-you-can-eat ice cream and fried chicken.

Meowth threw a berry at her for that and denied it until James threatened koffing smogging him.

The conversation withered and died thereafter, and the walk was suddenly much more tiring than it had been.

Suddenly a howl cut through the woods. The three froze and slowly turned to each other. James mouthed, 'Did you hear that too?'

Meowth mouthed, 'Duh.'

Jessie held a finger up to her lips but didn't shush them. She turned back to the brush and slowly crept forward, heel-toe-heel-toe quietly until she could see a clearing through the trees.

James and Meowth followed her, just as quietly but a little more clumsily, and peeked through the trees as well.

Ninetails and vulpix rested in the clearing, some up and lolling about, others stretching or sleeping on each other in piles. It was a beautiful sight to behold with the warm sunlight coming down through the trees, lighting dappled areas as baby vulpix, obviously just a day or two old, tottered along beside the older ninetails who gently nudged them up again each time they fell.

Jessie, James and Meowth shared a look again, this time with all their mouth hanging open in shock. A smile slowly spread across their features.

James reached into his bag and searched around.

He pulled out fifty pokéballs.

000

_To denounce the evils of truth and love_

000

"They didn't even plan it!" one other newbie protested when Jessie, James and Meowth were given a pay raise. "Their plan flopped, it was dumb luck they captured so many ninetails."

Jessie resisted stepping on his foot physically and instead decided to do it verbally. "So what if our plan flopped? Life happens; we weren't expecting the police to block our way. We just decided to make the most of being there, regardless."

James laughed and put a hand on her shoulder, "Ignore him, Jessie," he advised, "I've met his partner. The boy here's jealous that she's not half the women you are."

Meowth snickered with them when the newbie's face went red. "I tink dat dis is the start of ah _beau-ti-ful_ relationship!" he purred, nuzzling in between his two partners.

James scratched behind his ears, "Of course Meowth! With you—"

Jessie added, "—and James—"

"— and Jessie—" Meowth said.

"—I think we're all going to turn out _fabulous_," James finished.

Together, they laughed.

000

_To extend our reach to the stars above  
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000

Their thoughts had always been rather simple. Rise through the ranks in Team Rocket by catching rare pokémon and giving it to the boss, make a lot of money and be infamous throughout the whole world while living in the lap of luxury.

Jessie hadn't once thought of taking over the organization. James hadn't even fully realized the possibility of true malicious intent. Meowth might have thought of forming his own gang once or twice, but decided it was too much work, rolled over, and told Jessie to rub his belly.

Their popularity within the organization soared, their infamy outside of it was growing. They made their own catchphrase and personalized their uniforms. They _wanted _to be recognized as the ones causing problems within the otherwise peaceful region. They _were_ being recognized, to the point where they had to wear costumes sometimes to conceal their identities.

Their dreams were coming true! Fame, fortune, respect!

—That's when _they_ appeared.

None of them remember exactly how it started, it was such a long time ago, but they do remember a horrible shock and saying to each other later.

"That's not a normal Pikachu."

"We should nab it."

That was their only mistake, they would later decide. They just kept running into the Pikachu, intentional or not, and tried to take the opportunity to nab it. There had been several times when Pikachu hadn't been their objective at all.

They had gone after other pokémon time and again. They'd tried for money, equipment, even just getting into a movie theatre for free, and yet, every time, they were somehow foiled by a _pikachu_.

For goodness sakes, the pokémon wasn't even that rare; you could walk into Viridian Forest and pluck them out of the grass if you looked hard enough!

That didn't stop them from standing before their disappointed boss and stutteringly trying to explain.

"Boss, it's not a normal Pikachu! It's fantastic, it's well-trained and powerful!"

They were permitted to continue chasing it. After getting on their knees and begging for a chance to redeem themselves.

Soon, not even their small-crime of robbing PokeMarts was going well.

000

_Team Rocket, blast off at the speed of light  
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_Surrender now or prepare to fight_

000

"I'm sick of it!" Jessie threw her clothes down, grabbed a pillow and began beating it. "Sick! Of! It!"

"Jessie, Jessie, calm down," James ran over to restrain her, wrapping his arms around her from behind. Her hair was wet, she'd just come out of the shower and was wearing nothing but her lingerie. "Jessie, what's wrong?" he asked.

Jessie stopped trying to hit the pillow. "The twerp," she said.

"Oooh…" Meowth said. He uncurled himself from the hotel bed to rummage through their suitcase for clothes for Jessie to put on. They only had one suitcase now. They'd had to downsize ever since their budget began dwindling. Even the hotel was a cheap roadside hotel. Soon, they'd be downgraded to a regular small gray submarine instead of a magikarp one.

"Jessie, it's alright. We'll capture that pikachu eventually," James said, trying to rub her shoulders and back soothingly.

"Of course we will," Jessie said, sitting on their cheap bed with him. It was a one-bed room. "but James, what if there's really nothing special about Pikachu?"

"Whadaya mean?" Meowth said, carrying a folded skirt and top— still their personalized uniform, even though they hadn't felt particularly like they used to in it for a long time.

She took the clothes and set them on the bed beside her before reaching over to pull Meowth onto her lap. "What if Pikachu's not special?"

"What do you mean?" James asked, "of course it's special."

"But what if it's not?" she repeated more irritated this time before she seemed to cool slightly. "James, what if it's not Pikachu, what if it's us?"

"_Whadaya mean?_" Meowth repeated, trying to ignore Jessie's hair dripping water on him in favor of the conversation.

Jessie looked down at him and sighed.

"What if all that stuff we did before… what if it was all beginner's luck?"

James took her hand. "Don't think like that Jessie," he said. "it couldn't have been."

"James is right!" Meowth said, and then paused, "I nevah thought I'd say dat but I did."

"Of course I'm right," James shot Meowth a look before turning back to his other partner. "Jessie, you can't think like that! We're a team, you, me, Arbok, Weezing, and that annoying little thing on your lap—"

"_Hey_!" 

"—if that back then was all beginner's luck, just wait until everyone else's beginner's luck runs out too! They'll realize how badly they've been treating us and come crawling for advice on how to survive in the cold, real world."

Jessie smiled, faintly.

"But _we_ barely survive in da cold, real world!"

"_Meowth!_"

"Oops!" Meowth slapped his paws over his mouth. "Sorry Jessie, I meant dat dey'll be even worse off than us, 'cause we got experience."

Jessie sighed. "You two…"

"What?" the two boys asked at the same time, then turned and glared at each other.

"We're sorry Jessie," Meowth said, placing a paw over James' mouth to prevent him from interrupting, "It's just I've gotten so used to disagreein' with James I can hardly even remember if he was supposed to be important!"

"Of course I'm important!" James shoved the paw off, scowling, "You're the one who's not important! You can hardly even pedal to power our creations!"

"I am so much more important than you!"

"No you're not!"

"Yes I am!"

Jessie watched them go at it like she had a million times before, waiting for the moment to break them up.

It was a game, fighting.

Fighting with their peers for respect.

Fighting with the twerps for pokémon.

Fighting with each other as a vent.

It was all just a big, stupid game, one they could have turned off or started over again on at any time.

But it was a game they never wanted to stop playing.

000

_That's right.  
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000

**People have been telling me that apparently Team Rocket's finally stepping up again, but I don't have TV or good internet anymore, so I'm just trapped with the memories of years of Team Rocket flailing and failing in my mind. So this is my tribute to how the TRio were so badass in the first episodes and then I guess bowdlerizeation set in? Anyway, this Is set sometime before they got badass again, if they had indeed started becoming badass again. Which I hope they have.**

…**so maybe I replayed Leaf Green and rewatched 4Ever and looked up the manga online but only _maybe_**

**This is just a tribute to my favorite childhood baddies. Screw you, MojoJojo, Team Rocket was where it's at!**

**Anyone else remember **_**Go West Young Meowth**_**?**

**Jessie/James pokémon OTP y/y**? **  
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**000**

**I've got a poll up on my page with what I'm thinking of writing next, if anyone wants to go vote on it.**

**Thanks everyone for taking a look! **


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